The relationship between electrophysiological correlates of recollection and amount of information retrieved

The electrophysiological correlates of recollection were investigated with a modified Remember/Know task in which subjects signaled whether they fully or partially recollected visual object information in each study episode. A positive-going ERP deflection – the left parietal old/new effect – was sensitive to the amount of information recollected, demonstrating greater amplitude when elicited by test items associated with full relative to partial recollection. These findings support prior proposals that the left parietal ERP old/new effect is sensitive to the amount of information recollected from episodic memory. An early-onsetting (ca. 150 ms), left frontal old/new effect differentiated items accorded correct old versus correct new responses regardless of whether the items were endorsed as familiar or recollected. This finding extends the range of circumstances under which early, frontally distributed old/new effects occur, and adds weight to previous suggestions that these effects are a neural correlate of familiarity-driven recognition memory.